philippines

Villagers in the coastal village of Candiis in the Philippines, are taking part in an initiative to protect turtle nesting sites have recorded their most successful season in awhile! With nearly 300 hatchlings released into the sea in the first half of May alone — and more expected before the month ends. In 2019, the town released only 315 turtle hatchlings from five nesting events.

300 critically endangered sea turtles! How incredible is that? It's the first time that no eggs were spoiled, according to Rolando Pagara, a village council member who leads the community turtle conservation in Candiis, "Yesterday at around 5 in the afternoon while I checked the nesting ground and make sure the protected barriers are in place, I saw several turtle hatchlings were slowly crawling out of the sand. We immediately gathered, checked and counted them; the eggs are around 155 before releasing them into the sea at around 6:30 in the evening."

1,529 different species of turtles and tortoises, including Star Tortoises, Redfoot Tortoises, Sulcata Tortoises, and Red-eared Slider turtles, were trying to be smuggled into the Philippines' main airport, this past Sunday. The passenger carrying the animals from a flight from Hong Kong, said to a Filipino national, abandoned the exotic animals in four items of luggage that have since been intercepted by authorities.

In their announcement, the Bureau of Customs NAIA released a series of photos of the smuggled turtles, some of which had been bound in duct tape. The animals have now been turned over to to the Wildlife Traffic Monitoring Unit of the Philippines Department on Natural Resources, the Bureau of Customs PH said.